culture & pragmatics

[Bryan Maloney]

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, da Hiasl wrote:

> Translation :
>
> climbed up , picked up some cherries , dropped down , died
>
> praised be the Holy Trinity

Actually, this is coherent in US English, at least to those of us used
either to military radio chatter or scientific notebook shorthand. The
subject is implied--probably whomever is buried in the grave. The first
line is a brief description of the subject's last moments. The second
line is to be expected as a conclusion on a gravestone.

On the notebook example, several of my entries consist only of past-tense
no-subject entries.

For example:

Thawed samples
Added 10X PBS and H2O to final volume 2ml, 1X PBS concentration
Added running buffer
Boiled
Ran on SDS-PAGE, 2 hrs, 30mA